Pages

Sunday, 12 December 2010

WikiLeaks and the Fight for Internet Freedom

Molley from Rocketboomgives a rundown on the WikiLeaks debate in the video below.

An important point she is making is that Julian Asange's arrest has nothing to do with Wikileaks, but regards a sexual assault allegation. So why are WikiLeaks being bullied? It's servers are attacked. MasterCard, Visa and PayPal are all pressured to discontinue sources of income to Wikileaks, and even their Swiss Bank Account has been shut down. This is clearly an outright attack on WikiLeaks.

Since I support WikiLeaks, I am in favour of the backlash. The powers-that-be has gone to war against WikiLeaks, so they should not be surprised if hackers all over--who holds at heart the principle of free access of information--start to rise up and fight back. The most important hacker-ethic is that information should be freely available and free access to information has a positive effect on society. They thousands of hackers out there, Wikileaks embodies this ethic of free access to information. An attack on WikiLeaks is an attack on everyone that holds to this core value of free information and freedom of speech. The "unjust restrictions [governments] impose on [WikiLeaks] . . . will . . . only strengthen . . . [the] resolve [of people adhering to the value of freedom of information and freedom of speech] to disobey and rebel against [ such governmental] tyranny":

Corrupt governments of the world, we are anonymous. For some time now, voices have been crying out in unison against the new ACTA laws. The gross inadequacies of the new laws being passed internationally have been pointed out repeatedly. Our chief complaint is that such measures would restrict people's access to the internet.

In these modern times access to the internet is fast becoming a basic human right. Just like any other basic human right, we believe that it is wrong to infringe upon it. To threaten to cut people off from the global consciousness as you have is criminal and abhorrent. To move to censor content on the internet based on your own prejudice is at best laughably impossible, at worst, morally reprehensible.

The unjust restrictions you impose on us will meet with disaster and only strengthen our resolve to disobey and rebel against your tyranny. Such actions taken against you, and those you out source your malignant litigation too, are inevitable, unavoidable and unstoppable.